After more than a century, the town of Reading, Pennsylvania closed the casket on Saturday on its oddest-ever resident – a mummified man who was finally buried, 128 years after his death.
‘Stoneman Willie’ had attracted large crowds of people in recent days who came to pay their respects, snap pH๏τos and gaze with bewilderment at the macabre mystery in a scene unlikely to ever be repeated in the United States.
The alleged thief died in 1895 in jail and was taken to the Theo C. Auman Funeral Home and when no one claimed his body he was accidentally mummified by undertakers.
‘Fast-forward 128 years and he’s still here,’ funeral home director Kyle Blankenbiller explained before of the burial.
The thief gave authorities a false name – Willie – but his true idenтιтy was tracked down and finally revealed during Saturday’s ceremony, a fitting end to his life – and bizarre afterlife.
James Murphy was engraved on his gravestone which was unveiled at the climax of his funeral.
The mummified man known as ‘Stoneman Willie’ has been on display in a Pennsylvania funeral home since he died in 1895
Reverend Robert Whitmer visits ‘Stoneman Willie’ during his funeral service in Reading, Pennsylvania, on October 7, 2023
Staff and volunteers load the casket of ‘Stoneman Willie’ into a hearse during his funeral service in Reading, Pennsylvania
At his interment, a crowd gathered under overcast skies, circling around Willie’s black tombstone at a local cemetery for one final farewell.
Funeral home employees and well-wishers, said in unison, ‘Rest in peace, James,’ as they unveiled his tombstone, with his real name in small letters below large type reading, ‘Stoneman Willie.’
He got his nickname from his hard-as-stone leathery skin and smooth sunken facial features which have been the object of fascination for thousands, including curious locals, researchers and, in decades past, schoolchildren on class trips.
The corpse had been in an open casket at the funeral home until Saturday when it was loaded into a motorcycle-drawn hearse.
He was dressed in a suit with a bow tie with a red sash across his chest and his hair and teeth intact.
Whitmer conducts the funeral for ‘Stoneman Willie’ (James Murphy) on Saturday
James Stilianos holds his hat over his heart as he visits the body of ‘Stoneman Willie’ for one final time
The mummified man had become a quirky fixture of Reading history, ‘our friend’ who now got a well-deserved sendoff, Blankenbiller said.
Murphy was of Irish descent, an alcoholic, and was in Reading at a firefighters’ convention when he died in the local jailhouse of kidney failure on November 19, 1895, said Kyle Blankenbiller, the director of the Theo C. Auman Inc. Funeral Home where Murphy’s remains had resided.
The 37-year-old died after battling gastritis, which worsened into acute uremia or end-stage kidney disease.
According to his cellmate, Willie was arrested for pickpocketing and adopted the ficтιтious name James Penn because he did not want to shame his wealthy Irish father.
Funeral attendees look at the headstone for ‘Stoneman Willie’ during his funeral service
The man’s true idenтιтy was unknown because he gave a fake name when he was arrested more than a century ago for pickpocketing
Auman Funeral Home Director Kyle Blankenbiller speaks to visitors before closing the casket of ‘Stoneman Willie’ during his funeral service
On his death, local officials were unable to locate relatives, and the body was sent to Auman’s.
‘Weeks pᴀssed, months pᴀssed, years pᴀssed and no one claimed the remains,’ said local historian George Meiser said during Saturday’s service.
Pastor Robert Whitmire told the gatherers that to those who may have known him, ‘Stoneman Willie…at one time may have been a beloved friend and family member.’
With embalming still an emerging science, Blankenbiller said, Theodor Auman, a mortician, experimented with a new formula with innovative arterial embalming – a technique still relatively new in the late 19th century.
Before this, corpses were stored on ice until the burial.
The process entails injecting the embalming fluid into an artery, which displaces the blood, and a drain tube facilitates the ejection of blood from the vein.
The body of ‘Stoneman Willie’ is carried in a coffin to take part in a parade commemorating the 275th anniversary of the incorporation of the municipality of Reading, Pennsylvania
‘Stoneman Willie’ had attracted large crowds of people in recent days who came to pay their respects, snap pH๏τos and gaze with bewilderment at the macabre mystery in a scene unlikely to ever be repeated in the United States.
‘Stoneman Willie’s’ gravestone revealed his real name as James Murphy
‘The intensity of the concoction that he used’ led to Stoneman Willie’s mummification, a moisture removal process that forestalls decomposition. The excessive amount essentially petrified the man’s body.
Now, ‘he’s been gawked at enough,’ Blankenbiller said. Burying Stoneman Willie during anniversary commemorations for the city was the ‘reverent, respectful thing to do.
‘We don’t refer to him as a mummy. We refer to him as our friend Willie,’ Blankenbiller explained.
‘He has just been become such an icon, such a storied part of not only Reading’s past but certainly its present.’
Murphy was of Irish descent, an alcoholic, and was in Reading at a firefighters’ convention when he died in the local jailhouse of kidney failure on November 19, 1895,
Crowds of people have lined up in recent days to pay their respects to ‘Stoneman Willie’
It took some historic sleuthing by local historians to unearth his real name through records from the prison, funeral home and other documents to find the truth.
The funeral home was eventually granted permission by the state to keep the body instead of burying it to monitor the experimental embalming process.
Among those saying goodbye in recent days was Berks County resident Michael Klein, who was fascinated by the ‘mystery of who this guy really was.’
Stoneman Willie was buried in a vintage black tuxedo, fittingly from the 1890s.
‘Everyone comes to America to live the American dream. Nobody comes to die in a prison unknown,’ Klein said.
